Greatest Of All Legends

353  Skin Serenity I

The ball flew across the ground at an alarming pace and when the Sierra Leone striker made it past the Nigerian defenders to appear in the path of the ball, the heart of every Nigerian watching the game dropped.

Jason who was on the sidelines had his hands fly to the top of his head when he saw the Sierra Leone striker get away from his marker and appear in front of the goal with the ball flying his way.

The Sierra Leone striker tried to angle himself while running at the ball and as soon as the ball was near enough, he kicked at it, but in his haste, he suddenly slipped as his leg hit the ball.

Instead of hitting the ball like he planned to, the slip had caused the force in his foot to diminish greatly and the ball hit his leg instead and bounced off it and flew towards Nigeria's goal, but it had gained too much elevation and the ball flew upward, clipping the crossbar before flying out of play.

{Oh my God!}

{How has he missed that!?}

{It was his one chance to be the hero and he's blown it! And with how much time left, it's unlikely he will get another clear chance like the one he just flopped!}

{It seems like he slipped there, but I can't figure out why! What poor finishing!} The commentator's shocked tone as he delivered the commentary wasn't able to do justice to the stunned looks of everyone watching as they watched the Sierra Leone striker miss out on the easiest chance of the game.

His teammates looked like they would bury him alive and even the Nigerian players who were relieved couldn't believe that they hadn't been scored against.

"What the hell just happened?" Jason asked nobody in particular as he sat back in his seat, not sure why he was standing in the first place.

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"... I don't know bro, it all happened so fast," Aleix Iwobi said from beside him with a half laugh.

"I feel like Thanos just snapped his fingers to wipe out half the universe, but he didn't have the infinity stones," Zaidiu said as well with a strangely straight face, his words making everyone's eyes turn to him.

"What?" Zaidiu asked when he saw his fellow benchmates looking at him.

"...It was a… pretty apt description," Iwobi said with a laugh and the guys laughed a little, easing the tension they were currently feeling.

Their focus soon returned to the game and they watched as the rest of the time ran out.

The Nigerian players on the pitch managed to hold out for the rest of the match and when the final whistle was blown, everyone supporting the Nigerian side heaved a sigh of relief.

{The final whistle has been blown!}

{Nigeria have held out!}

{Their lead looked shaky quite a few times in the second half of the game, but they just wouldn't let go of it!}

{Some would argue that their luck played a great part in giving them this win, but what I know is that they have won and will be taking all three points from this match, leaving nothing for their opponents, and with this performance, they have qualified for the AFCON 22} the commentator began giving his closing remarks on the game.

The players on the field began walking off while some of them engaged in conversations and greetings with their opponents.

After a few minutes, Jason was called onto the field to receive the Man of the Match award and he took pictures with his new award before heading back to the sidelines.

A while later the players were in the locker room preparing to leave the stadium when the manager walked in with a few other coaching staff members.

"Good work out there guys," n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"While it looked a bit shaky for us out there a few times, we won and that's what matters,"

"Your performance for the national team is highly appreciated and I hope you can build off this performance at your various clubs and come back to give your best for the national team when next you receive a call up," the manager spoke, but his words sounded a bit too dreary for a post match address, but no one said anything as they understood how national call ups were.

Anytime could be a player's last call up to the national team as long as they did not impress the manager well enough with the performances to cause him to call them for the next international game hence everyone understood the reason for this slightly dreary address, but they weren't disheartened in the slightest.

The players had enough confidence in their abilities and knew they had a pretty high chance to be called back to the national team during the next international break… or at least most of them had such confidence.

About an hour later, most of the players were on a bus driving back to their hotel where they would be resting for the night, but from the following day, the coaching staff would be heading back to Nigeria by themselves as the rest of the players would be heading back to Nigeria by themselves now that the international break was over.

Jason was among the players not on the bus and was already on his way to the airport in a chartered car with Iwobi and Osimen.

Jason had a few things to do at Porto before training began and since the flight to Porto would take at least twelve hrs, he decided to get on a plane that same evening and reach Porto sometime before midday the following day.

If he had stayed at Sierra Leone until the following day, he would have to spend the best time of the coming day on a plane which would be a waste of the day and Jason didn't have that much time.

He had to sign an endorsement deal and rest before training began on the 19th which was just about a day away.

'Best to make full use of my time, I can just sleep on the plane and wake up in Porto so that I won't be too tired,' he sighed, knowing fully well that flying tired a person, so he would still feel quite tired even if slept through the whole flight.